Environment on ZME Science

The future is here: solar is cheaper than grid electricity for 30 million Americans

Rooftop solar is now cheaper than grid electricity for 30 million people living in 6 cities, a new report writes - even without government subsidies. This includes the cost of installing the solar panels. In other words, the future is here - solar energy is cheaper than the alternative.

Biologists discover two new marsupial species that have sex until they die. Ironically, they're endangered

A team of biologists from Queensland discovered two new species belonging to a marsupial genus known for mating until it literally dies. The antechinus marsupials look like pouched mice or shrews, but as cute as they may look, they're real beasts in the sack. Typically, once the breeding season starts, males embark in vicious sexual orgies 14 hours at a time, and it doesn't stop for two or so weeks. At the very end, the males suffers from diseases, internal bleeding, their fur falls off and some get ulcer. Ultimately, all that whole lotta love kills them, and rather painful too. Though they've just been discovered, the new antechinus species are considered endangered by the researchers.

Third of endangered saiga antelope population killed by unidentified disease

Some 120,000 critically endangered saiga antelopes were killed by a mysterious disease since mid-May in Kazakhstan, where 90% of the population lives. A third of the endangered saigas died in this sudden lapse that is still leaving veterinarians and researchers in the area scratching their heads. In the past two decades, the long-nosed antelopes went through a number of similar tragedies, both at the hand of disease and over-hunting.

UN: fewer hungry people worldwide, but still a long way to go

The number of hungry people worldwide has dropped to 800 million, down from a billion more than a quarter century ago. Progress in Latin America and East Asia accounts for the massive reduction in the number of undernourished people, but the UN warns there are still many challenges that need to be overcome if world hunger is to end by 2030. The report proposes rich countries divert more of their resources to poorer environments, while vulnerable countries need to invest more in social protection schemes, incentives for rural areas and promote peace in conflict ridden countries like those in Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa still has the highest level of undernourishment in the world - almost one in four people there do not have access to enough food.

Bill Nye, Science Guy: climate change will consume us like WWII did our parents

At his commencement address at Rutgers University, Bill Nye - famous for popularizing science as the Science Guy - said that climate change is the most serious crisis mankind has ever faced, liking the psychological pressure to that experienced by our parents and grandparents during World War II. He then called on the students to rise to the challenge and question those who deny the reality the planet is currently facing out of ignorance or malevolence alike.

Are these joint-shaped turbines the future of wind power?

A Spanish startup called Vortex Bladeless has been receiving a lot hype recently once it unveiled a prototype for a bladeless wind turbine. Like conventional pin-wheel turbines, their turbine also works by harnessing the kinetic energy of the wind. However, instead of moving blades which in turn rotate a shaft connected to a generator, the "asparagus" turbine uses a magnets to transform oscillating movements into electricity. It's a radical idea, one that might forever change the scenery most of you have already become used to - huge parks of windmills, which personally I'm rather fond of. So far, the engineers behind the project have been rather secretive and the only things we know about the Vortex Mini (the first commercial turbine of this kind set to come out next year) is what has been disclosed by the company. They're boasting an impressive performance - to the point that it might be feasible to forego pin-wheel turbines altogether in favor of the Vortex - but until we seen some independent assessments I believe skepticism is warranted.

Sea Turtle gets a new 3D-printed titanium jaw after being hit by a boat's propeller

A turtle named Akut-3 was fitted with a new, custom made 3-D printed jaw by doctors at the Research, Rescue and Rehabilitation centre at Pamukkale University in Denizli, Turkey. The reptile was found badly injured at sea and brought to the center for rehabilitation. At first, the doctors healed the turtle's wounds and hand fed her, but they knew they had to turn to something more drastic if the animal was to ever fend for herself in the wild again. They turned to a company in Turkey known for custom made prostheses, gave them a detailed CT scan of the turtle's skull, then received a new beak made out of medical-grade titanium. The prosthesis perfectly fit Akut-3, who is aptly named like a cyborg.

If the world built nuclear power plants at the rate Sweden had, there would be no need for fossil in 25 years

With all its cons and pros, at this time, nuclear power remains our best shot at decarbonizing the planet and ridding the world of its dependence of fossil fuel. During the 60s and 70s, many of the world's governments, including France, the US or the USSR embarked on ambitious projects to electrify their nations using nuclear power. Accidents like those at Three Mile Island (1979), Chernobyl (1986) or Fukushima (2011) served to halt this rapid pace of deployment and even shift policy back to massive fossil fuel deployment. Anti-nuclear power public sentiment did little to help, of course. Considering that the combined power of solar, wind and hydropower can't yet rid us of pesky oil and gas, wouldn't it be better if we embraced nuclear nevertheless, with all its shortcoming (many of which have been addressed by modern technology)? Two researchers wondered if the world was to hypothetically shift in high nuclear gear, how long would it take to completely shelve fossil. Their analysis showed if we built nuclear power plants at the rate Sweden had between 1960-1990, this target would be reached within 25 years.

Rats rescue their friends from drowning out of empathy (and kindness)

We use the word "humane" to describe kind behavior and sympathy towards others, but the term might falsely lend some to believe that this is an exclusive human quality. Far from it. Rats too are kind, sympathetic and as "humane" as any human. For instance, when their peers are in danger of drowning, rats will come to their aid to save them. Even when a tasty treat, like chocolate, is offered instead the rat will most often than not choose to help his dying friend. To hell with chocolate!

Meet the first fully warm-blooded fish: the opah

Though it's a deep ocean fish, the slender opah is actually fully warm blooded - the first of its kind discovered so far. This remarkable insight was made by accident after researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration dissected the fish and noticed its blue and red blood vessels were located inside the gills, rather than in the fish's swimming muscles. Tuna or sharks, which both have the same vessels but not arranged in the same way, cool their blood once it reaches the gills for oxygen reloading. The opah's vessels are interwoven inside the gill like a net, which means the the veins that carry warm blood away from the hot muscles are interwoven with the arteries that carry cold blood in from the gills. This makes all the difference. Running so close to each other, the warm blood from the heart heats the cold blood from the gills. This way the Opah is 5 degrees Celsius warmer than its surroundings waters!

Where are all the mummies? 2 out of 3 animal mummies don't have an animal inside

The proportions of fake animals, the subject of long and heated debates in the scientific community, have been revealed by researchers at University of Manchester. The team used X-rays and CT scans to look inside 800 animal mummies, some of which were more than 3,000 years old. Only a third actually contained an animal skeleton. Another third contained only fractions of a complete skeleton, sometimes just a single bone. The rest were all mud casts, filled with twigs or other organic material, made to look like a real animal was inside. So, is this an exposed elaborate scam routine performed over the millenniums? Not quite - the researchers believe something more innocent is at play.

Spiders weave graphene-infused silk: the strongest of both worlds

Graphene - the one atom thick sheet of carbon arranged in a hexagon lattice - is the strongest material known to man, and spider silk is one of the strongest found in nature, second only to limpet teeth. Heck, why not combine the two? Sounds silly, but it surprisingly worked when Nicola Pugno of the University of Trento, Italy sprayed spiders with both graphene particles and carbon nanotubes. The spiders weaved silk infused with the materials, and in some cases the silk was 3.5 times stronger than its natural counterpart. The resulting fiber is tougher than "synthetic polymeric high performance fibers (e.g. Kevlar49) and even the current toughest knotted fibers,” according to the paper published in Materials Science, which obviously entails a lot of real-life applications, industrial or otherwise.

The tooth-lined 'penis worm' now gets a dentist's handbook

One of the perks of being a writer for ZME Science is that I frequently get to feature some really amazing, yet bizarre creatures. Take for instance Ottoia prolifica (priapulid) or the penis-worm as it's also known, for obvious reasons. This phallic creature actually had a throat full of teeth which it used to munch its meaty prey, and the weirdness doesn't stop here. It could its mouth inside-out and use those teeth for traction so it could easily move about. Talk about double standards. Now, a team has systematically studied these ancient Cambrian fossils (520 million years old) to compile a dentistry handbook to distinguish between other penis worm species. This proved to be wise, since in their compiling work the researchers at University of Cambridge have already reported what they believe to be new Ottoia species.

HSBC advises caution when investing in fossil fuels, according to private note to clients

Amid crashing oil prices and a divestment movement from fossil fuels, one of the most important banks in the world, HSBC, advised its clients to exercise caution when considering investing in fossil fuel assets. This was communicated through a private report, called ‘Stranded assets: what next?’, picked up by Newsweek. Inside, analysts warn that fossil fuel companies might become economically non-viable in the future, considering tightening emission regulations throughout the world. Considering HSBC's portfolio, we can only take this as a sign that the fossil fuel industry is growing increasingly vulnerable, while renewables are shifting gears and growing at a fast pace driven by technological advances.

EX-NASA Engineer Wants to Plant one Billion Trees a Year Using Drones

Each year, we cut down 26 billion trees, for lumber, agriculture, mining and development projects. Every year, we plant about 15 billion trees, so that still leaves us with a huge deficit - something which is not sustainable and has to be addressed as soon as possible to avoid further problems down the road. Now, a former NASA engineer has found that drones could play a key part, and he plans to plant up to 1 billion trees a year using them.

Lowest science spending since WWII threatens US economy and security, MIT says

A report issued by a committee at MIT concludes that the decline in science funding will have drastic consequences for the country's economy and security, making the US trail behind other countries like China which is spending immense amounts of money on science. In fact, one study estimates China will become the world's leading science and innovation producer by 2020, outpacing the US. The MIT report identifies some 15 fields where inadequate budgets seriously hampers progress, from Alzheimer's research, to nuclear fusion, to disease and agriculture.

Courtship in the animal kingdom: the amazing blue-eyed satin bowerbird

Endemic to Australia and New Zealand, the satin bowerbird is considered one of the most intelligent birds found in nature. Mature males are very easy to spot because of their bright blue eyes, while their bodies are uniformly covered in black, although sometimes light diffraction makes the bird's feathers turn almost into a metallic sheen. What sets these birds apart is their remarkable courtship ritual, and the male's seemingly obsessive fixation for blue.

The future is here: solar is cheaper than grid electricity for 30 million Americans

Biologists discover two new marsupial species that have sex until they die. Ironically, they're endangered

French Minister: US Congress Won't Approve Climate Deal

Longest floating structure might clean the oceans

Giant sawfish exhibit virgin birth, reproducing without sex

Artist Transforms Junk Into Beautiful Street Art to Remind us of Pollution

The 2C global warming goal may be buried in Paris

Invasive species still hitch a ride on 2011 Japanese tsunami

Third of endangered saiga antelope population killed by unidentified disease

New simulation lab will help researchers better understand hurricanes

Everest glaciers might be gone thanks to global warming, new study concludes

Norway's $900 billion fund will stop investing in coal

Watch: The first 21 days of a bee's life in stunning timelapse

Global warming has never looked so beautiful: Glowing plankton in Tasmania

UN: fewer hungry people worldwide, but still a long way to go

Last ditch effort gives endangered turtles another chance

Even more glaciers in Antarctica set to melt in the near future

Massive MIT study says solar is the future, but governments need to be supportive

The ugly truth behind the 'cute' video of the orangutan and tiger cubs

Panda poo shows they shouldn't munch on bamboo so much

Fossil fuels are subsidized by $14.5 billion a day

Bill Nye, Science Guy: climate change will consume us like WWII did our parents

Pesticide limit may be the last resort to save the bees, White House says

Dramatic Californian Drought Forces Salmon to Take the Highway

Are these joint-shaped turbines the future of wind power?

Sea Turtle gets a new 3D-printed titanium jaw after being hit by a boat's propeller

Huge Ice Shelf in Antarctica Set to Collapse

If the world built nuclear power plants at the rate Sweden had, there would be no need for fossil in 25 years

Rats rescue their friends from drowning out of empathy (and kindness)

Bee numbers dropping at incredible rates

Meet the first fully warm-blooded fish: the opah

Urban Algae Canopy Produces Huge Quantity of Oxygen

World's first solar road works better than expected

Where are all the mummies? 2 out of 3 animal mummies don't have an animal inside

Scientists measure internal waves under the ocean from 'cradle to grave'; largest tops 500 meters

Spiders weave graphene-infused silk: the strongest of both worlds

Dozens of endangered cockatoos trafficked in small plastic bottles

The tooth-lined 'penis worm' now gets a dentist's handbook

The NSA is gathering so much data, it's become swamped and ironically ineffective at preventing terrorism

Fjords are good at fighting global warming, study finds

Tiny hairs on bats' wings act like airflow sensors - is this why they're such great flyers?

25,000 Mexican Fisherman Sue BP Over Environmental Disaster

Why Tesla's Battery Might Spell a Global Energy Revolution

Aesthetic arrangements from garbage? Alejandro Duran’s site-specific dirty decorations

HSBC advises caution when investing in fossil fuels, according to private note to clients

Coral disease threatens Hawaii reef

EX-NASA Engineer Wants to Plant one Billion Trees a Year Using Drones

Lowest science spending since WWII threatens US economy and security, MIT says

Courtship in the animal kingdom: the amazing blue-eyed satin bowerbird

Why pollinators are important and why we need to act now to protect them